


The Orphans

by marzantd



Category: Star Wars (Marvel Comics), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Princess Leia (Comics)
Genre: Absent Parents, Angst, Autistic Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Multi, Orphans, Refugee character, Refugees, Siblings, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, autistic main character, past enslavement, trans main character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-28 14:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16243169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marzantd/pseuds/marzantd
Summary: Worlds and parents taken by war, a small group of rebels must rebuild after the devastating attack on Mako-Ta Station.Katon and Hikaarni Nuskell, the children of three worlds - Alderaan, Espirion, and Mandalore - and their allies in the Alderaan Flotilla and beyond, must survive the never-ending assault of the Empire, and find any remaining Rebels who escaped the near-death of the Alliance...





	1. Prologue - Hikaarni Nuskell

**Author's Note:**

> Katon and Hikaarni Nuskell were introduced as children in my previous fic, The Romance of the Moons of Mandalore, which is currently unfinished and pending a rewrite.

**Starship _Espirion Multi,_ Espirion Orbit.**

**Just after the Battle of Yavin.**

 

Alderaan was gone.

Hikaarni's home. Everyone she knew there. Everything that she had been raised with.

But that was not all. The weapon of Alderaan's destruction, the Death Star, had been destroyed by a Rebel pilot. The Empire could be beaten. 

The Captain of the ship sat at the helm, her face and voice broadcast throughout the ship to all stations. Like Hikaarni, she bore the pale red skin and ice blue hair that marked her as Alder-Espirion - half Alderaanian, half Espirion.

"This is the Captain to all crew. Right now, there is an Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit around Espirion, engaged with a fleet of refugees from Alderaan. Beon Beonel has called us to do our duty. The Empire seeks to wipe out every Alderaanian, and I can't let that happen."

A murmur rose throughout the crew compartments near Hikaarni. Crewers of all species and all walks of life worked on this ship and many others like it on Espirion. The  _Multi_ was a part of Espirion's formidable defense fleet, and Espirion was a haven to many who faced persecution, including Hikaarni herself and her captain.

"I recognize that many of you among my crew may see my intention to join the fight to save the fleet as a personal crusade of revenge, and to those of you who do, I say you are welcome to leave the ship. But this ship will see battle today, and I will fight for Alderaan's future alongside any who wish to join me. You have two minutes to make your decision before we take off."

Everyone around Hikaarni stood stock still. Nobody else in this part of the ship had any connection to Alderaan - but each and every one of them would stand with her and her captain. The anger that had burned in Hikaarni since Alderaan's destruction was momentarily relieved as she allowed herself a brief flicker of hope. Some people, at least, would fight to make things right. She turned to her display console and examined the readout of power levels in the ship. Not a single door had been opened, no life pods launched. The ship's entire crew was with the captain, and with Alderaan. The flicker became a swell as the captain's voice came over the comm again.

"Time's up, and nobody has left," she said, smiling visibly on the display, "I knew my crew would do the right thing. Alright, battle stations! Let's show the Empire what happens if they mess with Espirion!"

A cheer filled the hall and Hikaarni's heart raced. Her combat drills would pay off in this moment as she took the fight to the Empire that had destroyed her life, and fought to save the remnants of her home.

The battle was over quickly after the powerful Espirion warship joined the fighting. As Hikaarni watched on her scanner screen, the Imperial Star Destroyer, symbol of the Empire's brutality and power, exploded into pieces and was gone. Hikaarni felt relief, that Alderaan, or what was left of it, was saved.

After the battle, the crew of the _Multi_ boarded the  _Lord Junn,_ a pleasure yacht being used by Princess Leia -  _the_ Princess Leia Organa! - as a temporary flagship. Her heart raced as she met the people whom she had just aided, those who were now the few representatives of her lost world. But her world lived on. It lived through them, through this ship, and this fleet, through the house of Organa and - 

Hikaarni looked down at her left hand, flexed it, felt the power in it to change the galaxy, felt the blood of Alderaan flowing through her. Alderaan lived through Hikaarni Nuskell.

As Princess Leia returned to the Rebellion, Alderaan entered Hyperspace as one, jumping forward into its future.


	2. Prologue - Katon Nuskell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katon Nuskell trains to be a pilot in the Rebellion. He is driven by his hatred of the Empire that took away his home, but will hate blind him?

**_Lucrehulk Prime,_ ** **Deep Space.**

**Rebel Alliance Pilot Training School.**

Katon yelled in frustration as once again he failed to put the Headhunter into the tight maneuver he intended.

"Keep it cool in there, hotshot!" said the Rotation General in his comm. General Syndulla had been patient with him so far as he tried his hand at piloting a real fighter, but her patience was running out - and so was her time.

"General, please," Katon begged, "give me one more try, I know I can get it!"

"Too late, I already gave you 'one more' and that was it. I've got other pilots who need to use that ship before my rotation's over. I'm bringing you in to dock on astromech piloting."

Katon slumped back as far as he could in the cramped cockpit. He had been waiting for his opportunity to get in a real starship for weeks, and he'd already blown it in one day. All that time in the simulators and airspeeders for nothing.

The Z-95 Headhunter passed through the shield of the docking bay of the massive ship and hissed steam as its landing struts extended and it came in to land, all without his hands on the controls. The cockpit popped open and he tore his flight helmet off before he even left the cockpit, throwing it out of the side of the ship and leaving his sweaty ice-blue hair sticking out at odd angles. He half-climbed, half-jumped down the ladder and stormed past the flight deck crew without even picking up his helmet. At the other end of the flight deck, he saw General Syndulla, already barking out orders for the next set of flight cadets.

"Ok, Interceptor pilots, in your fighters and prepare for formation maneuvers! Bomber cadets, suit up and be ready to fly in ten! I want no slacking this time!" Katon was surprised to see her head turn to face him as he approached her, making for the exit, and a half-smile on her face. He stopped just short of her and prepared for a chewing out, but was surprised when she said, "don't get out of that flight suit just yet. You may not make X-Wing pilot, but I can see you want to fly more than anything else. You've got that spark in you." Unexpectedly, she placed a gloved hand on his shoulder, and continued, "we need pilots more than anyone else right now. There's an opening in the bomber cadet pilot group, if you wanted one more chance." What General Syndulla left unsaid was why pilots were so desperately needed - the battles at Scarif, Yavin and Vrogas Vas had claimed the lives of a huge number of the pilots the Alliance had. Replacements - any replacements - were needed. And the deaths of all those pilots was what was allowing him to try one last time to fly. He felt a twinge of guilt at that fact.

He swallowed and looked General Syndulla right in her green eyes. "Alright, I'll do it. Show me where to go."

Ten minutes later, Katon sat in the pilot seat of an old BTL-S3 Y-Wing, a Rebellion refit of the Y-Wing retaining the two-seater design that had originally been used in the Clone Wars. This setup allowed a gunner to operate a turret mounted on the top of the cockpit, seated behind the pilot. Katon twisted his head around to look at the helmeted head of the human woman who was designated his gunner on this flight, a fellow cadet.

"Hey, what's your name?", he asked her politely. She didn't answer immediately. Katon was about to ask again when she replied, "Elyss," curtly and with a clipped Core accent.

"Nice to meet you, Elyss," Katon said, considering a handshake before realising the difficult logistics of such a move. This time Elyss really did say nothing. Any further attempt at conversation was interrupted by General Syndulla calling the bomber cadets to action.

"Alright, Pilots, keep those ships steady and watch out for targets. You'll need to work with your gunners to hit the phantom enemies I'll be sending your way, and you'll also have to avoid their return fire. Good luck, and good hunting."

Katon flipped the ignition switches and put his hands on the controls. He would have to trust the near-stranger behind him just as much as he would have to trust himself, if either of them were to progress to fighting in the real Rebellion. Katon's limited experience with ships had mostly been on the other side of the comm, working to direct slow-moving civilian traffic in and out of Elrait. His aunt Belka, (or so they called her, even though she had no blood relation to him or his sister) operated the planet's traffic control center, and he had been working under her for a year or so, taking flight lessons where he could in Belka's wife Vuche's airspeeder, always yearning to fly for real among the stars. When Alderaan met its end, his rage was matched only by his determination. The Death Star had been destroyed, and with it many of the Empire's seemingly untouchable officers. They could be killed just like the innocents on his home world, and his blood boiled when he thought how many more were still out there. Just as much as he yearned to fly, he yearned to bring as many Imperials to their ends as he could. 

Four Y-Wings and eight crew left the hangar. The ship handled roughly but easily, more similar to the slow airspeeders Katon was used to than the wild Headhunter. He allowed a smirk to cross his face as a little bit of confidence made its way into his heart. On the signal from the General, he and the other pilots increased speed a little, preparing for combat.

"Okay, bomber cadets, enemy signals approaching. Watch your scanners."

"I see them!" came a cry over the comm. One of his fellow pilots, a Duros. "Mark two-five-two, coming in fast. Looks like four signals."

"Got them on scopes," Katon acknowledged. The group of signals was approaching on an attack vector. They had to act quickly.

"They're too fast for us to out-maneuver," another pilot's voice said, "gunners, take aim and blast them as soon as they're in range. Pilots, try to keep them in your gunners' sights."

"Copy that," Katon said, before switching off the comm and talking only to Elyss, who still sat behind him, silent and unseen. "I'm going to get them behind us. Keep your turret trained back and blast them if they try and follow us." Elyss grunted in acknowledgement. Katon switched the comm on again.

"Squad, keep ahead of me, I'm going to tempt them on my tail. Gunners, keep your guns facing straight back and trained on the signals on my tail," he said, slowing his engines a little. The signals caught up with him rapidly, coming into range of the turret. The instant the first signal came onto her targeting computer, Elyss pressed down on the triggers with deadly precision. The first signal disappeared, but three more quickly took its place, and returned their fire. Katon checked the postion of his fellow pilots, speeding up and pulling into a maneuver that took him on course to pass over his squad.

"Gunners, watch above you! Signals passing through, in 3...2..."

On cue, the enemy signals passed into range of the other gunners. With four turrets blasting at them simultaneously, the signals quickly vanished. The scenario had ended with not a single hit on any of the Y-Wings.

The four Y-Wings returned to the hangar triumphant. Katon couldn't hide his excitement as he cried out in joy as soon as his cockpit opened. He raced down the ladder onto the deck and pumped his fist in the air, before turning and getting a good look at his gunner for the first time. 

She was very short, pale and round-faced, looking very young. Probably only about Katon's age, maybe a little older. He grinned at her, but she just nodded at him and walked off, past the celebrating crews of the other fighters, and General Syndulla, who stood with her arms folded on the hangar floor, a wry smile and a cocked eyebrow on her face as she looked at Katon, not noticing the small human who had just walked past her.

"I knew I'd make a pilot of you yet, Nuskell. Your mothers can't have let you grow up to be this old without giving you at least a little of that Mandalorian spirit."

Katon blinked. "You knew my mothers?" 

"We fought together to liberate Mandalore alongside Clan Kryze and some of my closest friends."

Katon remembered. "Oh, I think we met once, when I was younger! Of course!"

Hera laughed, "now the credit drops," before her face darkened. "That was on Alderaan. I'm sorry, I didn't even think..."

Anger flared up inside Katon at the memory. He swallowed it down. "That's why I'm here. I have to help to destroy the Empire that did this to my home."

Hera nodded grimly. "Your spirit is what we need, but make sure your heart is in the right place. We fight to save the galaxy, not to destroy."

"They're the same thing in my eyes," Katon replied. "Speaking of, my gunner was highly skilled. She must have had some training to be able to blast down TIEs like that - even simulated ones. She's young so, militia? A rebel cell somewhere? PDF?"

Hera grimaced, "she's...former Imperial."

Katon nearly exploded at the General. "How could you not tell me? I'll never fly with the people who destroyed Alderaan, killed all the people I grew up with! Never!"

"Katon, without ex-Imperials the Alliance military would be nowhere!" Hera yelled back, a stern finger pointed into his face. Despite Katon's height, he appeared to shrink to the other pilots who watched their loud dispute as Hera's presence laid him low. "We respect our own, no matter where they come from. If they will fight to free the galaxy, we welcome them into the Alliance. Is that understood?"

"I-" 

" _Is_ that  _understood,_ Pilot?" 

Katon swallowed. "Yes, sir."

Hera relaxed visibly, going from fired up to looking exhausted in the blink of an eye. She turned to the other pilots.

"You are all dismissed. Back here same time tomorrow for more drills," she said, and turned back to Katon, "and make sure we are on our best behaviour."

Katon stormed past her just as the evil Imperial woman had done minutes before. He had to find her.

He found Elyss - the Imperial - in the pilots' locker room, her flight suit lying across a bench and her casual clothes on. She was strapping on her boots when Katon burst in and cornered her.

"How many did you kill?" He asked, venom in his voice.

"I-"

"Just tell me. How many rebels - how many innocents - how many did you kill? When you were with the  _Empire_ ," he repeated, practically spitting out the last word.

"None," she replied, "I didn't kill anyone. Gunnery Instructor Trainee Elyss Palins, Raithal Academy. That's all I was."

Katon blinked. An instructor. A trainee no less. He retreated just a little. He hadn't even considered that the Empire would have instructors, or trainees. In his anger he had seen it all as a single mass of evil, springing fully formed from nowhere to kill and destroy.

"I couldn't let the Empire continue to ruin the galaxy. I had to do something, so I abandoned the Academy and joined the Rebellion. It nearly cost me everything," she continued, lowering her head. Only now, with her helmet removed, did Katon see the large scar that was visible across her head, dividing her brown hair into two. Katon staggered backward, and turned his own head away.

"You're from Alderaan?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, not quite letting go of all of his anger. 

"I can't even imagine how much you've lost," she said, "my family was taken by the Empire after I left...I don't know what happened to them. But you lost your world, everyone you knew..."  
  
"Not quite everyone..." he admitted, "my mothers and sister are still alive. But the world I grew up with is dead. Now I have to make the Empire pay."  
  
Elyss raised her head now, and took Katon's right hand in her left, bringing it up to his cheek.

"Your world is gone, but it's not dead. Alderaan is alive. It courses through your body, your sister's your mothers'...Alderaan lives through you. And I will fight alongside you, to ensure that no other world will ever suffer like Alderaan..."

Elyss trailed off, then said, "I never even got your name. I'm so sorry, I didn't think-"

"Katon," he said, "Katon Nuskell. It will be an honour fighting by your side - Gunner Elyss Palins."


	3. Prologue - Niwwit Tah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Former slave Niwwit Tah grew up on Sleheyron, a prisoner of indentured servitude to a vicious Hutt crime lord. Never knowing her parents, she was auctioned off to the Hutt as an infant and brought up to be a servant. Niwwit was fortunate enough to escape slavery - but life outside of Hutt space is little more forgiving in the age of the Empire. To complicate matters, Niwwit is not her birth name - she was assigned male at birth, and has discovered her identity only recently while living just outside the edge of Hutt space, working with her girlfriend, a Nikto named Alk'en Fissos, to undermine both the Hutts and the Empire.

**Planet Tuzon.**

**Off the Pabol Sleheyron hyperspace route, near Hutt Space.**

Fog blurred the grey ocean, rendering the distant deep-sea mining platforms nearly invisible. Even here, where people had almost nothing and the world's resources were almost depleted, they were not truly safe from raids by the Hutts. Niwwit lowered her quadnocs and set them down on the old wooden table in front of her. Through the small window of glass little was visible but the ocean and the tip of the cliff below which their dwelling was situated, a small triangle of darkness jutting in at the top of the window. Across from Niwwit sat Alk'en, her love, steam from the hot tea she held blurring her craggy green face. Niwwit's lekku hung freely behind her, her forehead uncovered, displaying her lobed ears that would mark her as a Twi'lek who was assigned male. Usually these would be covered by a binding of leather, that would cross her forehead and keep her lekku held behind her head. At home she had no reason to cover up.

"No supply pickups this week," she informed Alk'en, "I guess those old mining stations have finally run dry." There were no crew remaining on any of the platforms, and they ran on automated systems and a skeleton crew of obsolete droids. Those stations and the metals they mined had sustained this world centuries ago, giving it a moderately prosperous reputation in this sector of space. Over the years, the world's supply slowly shrank, and its prosperity had attracted the attention of the nearby Hutt cartels. The toll the Hutts' privateers had taken on the world's exports had left it unable to keep up once the metals on the surface disappeared. Unable to expand into the outer space of the star system, fearing occupation of any extraplanetary mine by the Hutts, the sea eventually fell to mining stations. Little life still clung to the churning oceans, and even the seemingly vast wealth of undersea minerals had eventually been consumed by the ravenous demand of the galaxy, and by the incessant plundering export convoys by pirates and privateering. Absent almost any industry or notable resources, the world was now a shadow of its former self, many of its once-impressive cities and citadels standing empty, slowly recolonized by life, the shadowy halls of the surface mines becoming paradises for underground creatures. Just as the planet died, it was also being reborn.

The planet was named Tuzon. Niwwit and Alk'en lived in a solitary prefab, centuries old, and dozens of kilometers away from the nearest city. That city was the largest remaining spaceport on the planet, but it still saw little use. Now that the automated mines that built the city's wealth seemingly had ceased operation, the city itself could follow. It was here that Alk'en had taken Niwwit after they first met each other, years ago in a busy spaceport on Lianna.

Alk'en now blew on her tea and sipped a little, her dark eyes narrowing. "This world's on borrowed time. If the Hutts are leaving this world alone, then there'll be nothing in the way of a full-blown Imperial takeover."

"Would even they want somewhere like this?" Niwwit asked, already knowing the answer.  
  
"The Empire wants everything. They haven't been touching the Corporate Sector or Hutt Space just yet...but it's only a matter of time."

"Speaking of time," Niwwit said, swinging her legs from one side of her chair to the other before standing up, "we should get moving before long. We don't want to miss our appointment."

A few hours later, Niwwit and Alk'en walked down the desolate promenade that led to the spaceport. There were few natives and even fewer travelers as they walked hand in hand toward the meeting point. Nobody batted an eye at the sight of a Twi'lek and Nikto here - the world's inhabitants tended to be a mix of species found in and near Hutt space, mingled with the descendants of the colonists who had come this way rimward long ago to found this place. Minutes after the pair reached Landing Platform Two, a nondescript freighter touched down and disgorged its passengers.

The first to appear was a Hutt. But this Hutt was no crime lord - he was just as much a victim of the cartels as Niwwit had once been. Forced into the service of one of the most prominent Hutt criminals, Ziro, this Hutt had fled far from Hutt space after Ziro's death decades ago. His name was Usen, and he had spent the last 20 years of his life - he was a young Hutt, and this period represented over half of his time - working against the Hutts from afar, foiling privateer raids alongside a small but dedicated crew. Alk'en and Niwwit had made contact with Usen and his crew months ago, seeking to form an alliance and create a cell that would operate in the name of liberty against all who would oppose it in this sector. A far more broad goal than that of the narrow Rebellion against the Empire, who sought only to restore the failed Republic. These Liberators would not rest until the galaxy was free - truly free.

 


	4. Prologue - Captain Moran

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once, the pirate called Anai Torander was among the most fearsome in the known galaxy. A scourge of the spaceways, she raided wealthy worlds and starship convoys with devilish cunning, running a large crew and a whole fleet of pirate ships. But the Empire's grip has tightened on the galaxy's criminal element, and Anai's luck ran out shortly before the destruction of the Death Star. After her death, er pirate fleet splintered, many of her former lieutenants were captured or killed by the Empire, others fought each other over the spoils. Captain Hosst Moran is one of the few to escape unscathed, and with their adoptive pirate family in ruins, they must forge their own destiny in a troubled galaxy...

**Pirate Ship _Gold's Fool._**

**Olondt System, Outer Rim.**

 

Stars and diffuse gases glimmered like a hoard of treasure. Captain Moran examined them with greedy eyes, settling on the small white sphere of the world far away that they currently orbited. Seated in a comfortable reclining chair, they were at the centre of a small bank of command screens that controlled the modest ship's functions. Around them, standing at their stations, the small crew of the  _Gold's Fool_ was poised to strike.

Soon a fat target would come into the system. A very hefty bounty had been placed anonymously on this seeming nobody of a man, and the pirate crew had managed to trace his journey to this distant system. It was a perfect trap, a perfect payday, and one the crew sorely needed after weeks of empty coffers (and similarly empty bellies).

Moran raised a gloved hand and pointed at their first mate Yuto, a Duros woman who she had never met before the strings of fate had bound them to this ship. 

"It's nearly time. Bring us into a tighter orbit, and set up our intercept vector. We have to be ready to spring as soon as our unfortunate friend arrives."

"Yes, captain," replied Yuto, tapping on her console. The ship juddered to life underneath the crew's feet as its engines fired. Moran steepled their fingers close to their golden-skinned face, dark eyes narrowing. The pale planet grew rapidly in the ship's main viewport. Astrogation for this system had brought a probable range of entry for their approaching quarry, based on his previous location, and the ship was overlooking it so that the crew would be able to detect the ship's shadow even before it arrived. It was only a matter of time now.

Their quarry was an old Anx, long faded from relevance. Once he was an important trader in the days of the Republic, but now he was nothing, an old man living on a pittance. Moran wasn't sure why their anonymous benefactor was placing this bounty, but it would matter little was the money was divvied up among the crew.

As thoughts of the reward filled their mind, Moran was snapped back to reality by a cry from the ship's sensor officer.

"Multiple signals incoming! He's not alone!"

Moran sat up, alert. "Battle stations! Take us to the edge of sensor range - I want to see what we have here!"

The crew complied and the pirate craft swooped away from the planet as several ships emerged from hyperspace in its wake. As expected, their target was here in a small personal craft, but he was indeed surrounded by several other vessels. Their mass and shape suggested something that sent the blood draining from Captain Moran's face - the Empire was here.

"All power to engines! Get us out of here!" Imperial ships meant tractor beams, and tractor beams meant death to pirates like this crew. The ship tore through space, the Captain keeping an eye on the display screen on their chair, barely blinking for fear of letting the ship fall to the Empire. The tactical readout confirmed Moran's worst fear - an entire Imperial-class Star Destroyer was powering up tractor beams and heading in their direction, flanked by escort ships. Their own hyperdrive was not yet fully powered, and the difference between escape and death could be just a few seconds.

Beads of sweat formed on the captain's brow. The Empire's net was tightening as more and more worlds flocked to the Rebellion. It was a dangerous time to be a pirate - even the Empire's furthest reaches were subject to punishing scrutiny, and any sight of insubordination in Imperial space was punished to the fullest. They risked another glance at the tactical readout, heart leaping as they saw how close the Star Destroyer was getting. Finally, their hyperdrive reached adequate power, and the instant it did, Captain Moran shouted the order to enter hyperspace.

Miraculously, the ship slid away into the blue tunnel of hyperspace without a hitch. They had just outrun a Star Destroyer. Moran slumped back in their chair, relieved - but they would have little time to rest. The crew had faced failure after failure. Without a windfall soon, they would all be in serious trouble, and eventually, maybe even the ship would have to go. They needed a sure thing. Anything. 

The Captain sat up and gave a new order to the crew. "We head out of Imperial space. Leave the Rim behind. Set course for Hutt space."


	5. Prologue - Shosli Quadorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the fringes of the Rebel Alliance, far from the central command and the nascent Rebel Fleet, cells operate in the shadows of the Empire, evading detection and fighting in secret against Imperial authority. The Selkath Shosli Quadorm was once a scholar, and the world she calls home once a quiet backwater, but war has engulfed the planet as Imperial troops fight in the streets to secure the Empire's rule. Shosli acts as a diplomat, a go-between of the Rebel high command and insurgents back home. On board a secret transport to the Rebellion's top-secret prison facility, Shosli's day is complicated by a new arrival...

**Rebel Freighter _Mondas._**

**Hyperspace, en route to Sunspot Prison.**

Leaving home was never easy. Shosli had learned as much from her parents, who had left their ancestral home on Manaan decades ago as the watery world was racked by chaos. It seemed to her that they had never truly found home again, at least not in a place - some of the more sentimental colleagues of hers said that family was the only true home, but Shosli didn't trust that. To Shosli, home was only one thing - the planet Aluddus IV, and the place of learning she had spent her many working years. A house that as of late was a bit of a mess.

Shosli stretched her arms and stood up from the hard seat she had been occupying. The freighter's pilot didn't look up, He grunted in response when she said she was going to check on their prisoner, and flipped a few switches on the dashboard. She stepped out of the cockpit and headed through the narrow corridor of the ship to the cargo bay, where Governor Pontin Uist of Aluddus IV sat in shackles. He hadn't moved since the last time Shosli had opened the door to the cargo bay, and he said nothing as she entered. It pleased her to see him brought low like this - the effort to capture him had taken months and claimed the lives of many of her allies. But with him in chains, and soon to be housed in the Alliance's most secret and secure prison, it had all been worth it. Aluddus IV would soon be free.

The Governor kept his eyes on the floor as she walked slowly and deliberately over to him. Though he was seated, they were face-to-face due to Shosli's short stature, and she took his chin in her thumb and one of her two long fingers, forcing it upwards so that their eyes met. 

"My dear Governor," she gloated, "so good to finally talk with you like civilized people." 

"Go space yourself," was all he said.

Shosli chuckled. It was all talk now that she had him here. The burning of the archives, the death of so many of her fellow scholars, the brutal punishments of so many who were just trying to live their lives - the man most responsible was at her mercy. And she planned to show him just what mercy was - a nice solitary cell next to a sun, where none of his precious comrades would ever find him. She released his head, which dropped back down to look at the ground again. 

"Take a good look around this cargo bay," she said, barely concealing the glee in her voice, "it will be the last thing you see before you're locked away!" She sauntered out of the cargo bay and shut the door again, leaving him to stew. As she returned to the cockpit, the pilot eased the freighter back into realspace, in what would usually be a dangerously close approach to the system's star. 

Clearance codes were transmitted and the freighter was soon docked with the huge prison complex. In the dry heat of the station, Shosli was forced to wear a full-body hydro-suit to keep her entire body cool and wet. The boxy suit made her look a little less intimidating as she brought in the prisoner, but still, he was more trapped than she was. He was quickly checked in, scanned for any weapons or contraband, and placed in a cell. The dirty work done, Shosli was preparing to take a ship back to Aluddus IV when suddenly the room went dark and alarms sounded in the distance. 

Shosli froze in place, wondering what was happening. A pair of Rebel troopers, heavily armoured, their faces shielded by dark helmets, ran past. One briefly stopped to yell, "The station's under attack! Get to safety!"

Shosli's suit cooled down the water surrounding her as the temperature in the station began to rise. Uprooting her feet, she bolted in the only direction that seemed safe - right after the Rebel troopers. As the pair of troopers fell into line with a squadron of similarly-uniformed guards, who already had weapons raised, she saw that she may have made a deadly mistake. She had followed the troopers right into a battle zone. Blaster fire was exchanged between Rebels and menacing droids - could the Empire have found even this most hidden of facilities? 

Shosli pressed her back into the wall of the narrow corridor in which she stood. Risking a glance between the troopers that stood between her and possible death by droid, she saw that the droids were also firing into the prison's cells, cutting down unarmed prisoners. Even if each prisoner in here was just as evil as her own, she couldn't abide killing them while they were defenseless. An unfortunate Rebel caught a droid's blaster shot straight in his helmet, sending him careening backwards toward Shosli and leaving a smoking hole in his dark faceplate. Shosli's cold heart pumped harder as she reached for his blaster rifle. She checked it over and made sure it was still functioning, before squeezing off a wild shot toward the droids. Even though her capacity within the Alliance was civilian, even she had to be capable of wielding a weapon should the need arise.

"Fall back! Head to G Sector  _now!"_

Following their sergeant's urgent command, the Rebel troops turned their backs on the droids and ran back toward where Shosli had come from. She scrambled after them as she saw the shutter door between this sector and the next slowly closing. She narrowly avoided being trapped in the corridor, but not every trooper was so fortunate - a stray blast had hit one of the Rebels' legs, and Shosli shivered at her screams of agony before they were silenced. On the other end of the corridor, the horrifying sound of the heat shield lowering mingled with the shrieks of the trapped prisoners as the sun's heat burned them alive. The droids marched down the corridor, protected by the edge of the shield in this sector, and one started cutting open the shutter door with a plasma cutter.

"We can't take these droids alone," admitted the Squadron's sergeant, pulling up his face mask. Underneath, sweat drenched his face, not just from the sun's heat. 

"The central command's been taken over," the comm officer reported, revealing her large dark eyes flecked with stardust- a Rodian. "We're cut off."

The sergeant cursed, but then he looked around, and said, "hold on - we're not far from weapons cache fifteen. In fact -" he ordered a trooper to the other end of the room, keeping a wary eye on the slow but steady progress of the droid attempting to cut into the room. Sure enough, the cache of blaster rifles lay only meters away.   
  
"All those blasters are no use without anyone to operate them," the trooper reported, "without reinforcements they're about as much use as bantha dung to us."

Suddenly a clang of metal attracted the attention of the remaining troopers. One of the prisoners in this section, knocking on his bars.   
  
"Hey, I know my way around a blaster..." the man said, grinning, revealing a mouth of metal teeth. He had a number of cyber implants visible, and Shosli recognized him as Zo Suman, one of the Empire's most dangerous spies. "Let me out, and I'll take care of the droids for you." Cries from the other prison cells confirmed that they had plenty of reinforcements here, if they could be trusted with weapons. The squad's eyes settled on the sergeant, who nodded. "Let the prisoners out, arm them. But keep a close eye on them, and don't stray far from the exit."

The comm officer nodded, and hit a few keys on a nearby console. The cells' doors opened as one and the few remaining troopers distributed rifles to the bloodthirsty prisoners. Shosli shivered. She would be fighting alongside the worst of the Empire.

Battle commenced as the droids finally broke through the shutter door. Hidden behind the struts of a staircase, Shosli fired in the direction of the enemy. As she watched, prisoners and troopers alike fell to the blasts of the droids. The situation was dire. They were being backed into a corner. The comm officer was cut down in a hail of blaster fire, followed by the formidable Zo Suman. Eventually Shosli and the sergeant were alone, crouched behind a crate as the two remaining droids advanced on them. Shosli swallowed. Her death was coming, and she didn't even know what she was fighting against. She turned to the sergeant, her face dimly visible through the cloudy recycled water of her suit. As one, they nodded, and burst over the crates, blaster rifles poised to fire at their enemy. To their surprise, both droids sparked and fell before they even fired a shot. As the two droids collapsed forward, Shosli could see the shape of three humans behind them.

"You okay over there?" came the unmistakable voice of Leia Organa. Shosli's heart leapt. She had never met the Princess, but every Rebel knew of her. Before she could answer, one of her companions crouched down next to the bodies of the prisoners, before yelling, "we've got wounded here! One of these prisoners isn't dead!" 

"Sorry, I'm not a medical doctor," the other companion said, "I'm an archeologist." The humour in her voice seemed unfitting to the situation.   
  
"I've had medical training," said the sergeant, rushing over to where the body lay. Shosli followed him, seeing the Princess up close for the first time. She was hardly taller than Shosli, but her presence seemed to fill the entire room. She saw that the other woman - the Doctor, was in a prisoner's uniform, and in front of her, crouched down, wore a dark body suit covered by a green shawl. The sergeant crouched next to her, as she saw with horror who the wounded man was - the Governor who she had brought here, the scourge of her world. She had fought alongside him without noticing.

Governor Uist's eyes flickered open as the sergeant attempted to apply bacta to the scorched wound in his side. He yelled aloud in pain and fear. As Shosli saw him lying there, frightened and wounded, she didn't feel the same sense of pride that she had before. The monster looked just like a man now. 

"Sana, what's going on down there?" asked Leia, stood a few meters away.

"His pulse is weak," Sana replied, her formerly gloved hand to his neck, "I don't think he's going to make it."

"We should just leave him," the Doctor said, "we have to take back the command center. If we don't, it won't just be him that dies, but all the other prisoners, and us too."

"Aphra's right," Sana said, "I don't know who this guy is, but he's in no state to fight. We have to get moving."

Leia looked haunted. She turned to the sergeant, who wordlessly shook his head. The Governor's eyes widened and he made a sudden choking noise, and his screams stopped. His face was frozen in a scream of horror, his eyes looked glazed. He was dead.

"Sergeant - what's your name?" Leia asked.

"I'm Sergeant Koster. Dyne Koster, from Denon."

Denon - that was the same world that the Governor had hailed from. Leia nodded. "We're headed to the command center. Stay here and prepare to evacuate." 

Shosli and Sergeant Koster acknowledged, and Leia and the two women ran off up the stairs. Shosli looked down at the Governor once more. He was trapped forever in his final moment of pain. Shosli did the only thing she could - with her two long fingers she closed the governor's wide open eyes, and, taking his chin again between her thumb and finger, she closed his mouth gently. His tortured face looked at peace now.


End file.
